Claude Felton is one of the best men I have ever known.

Scores of admirers say the same thing.

Claude Felton is the greatest Sports Information Director of all time. He and Dan Magill. His mentor.

It says so much about the Greatest Bulldog Ever, that his two successors were the very best. Both Claude and Manuel Diaz, championship accumulating winningest tennis coach in Southeastern Conference history, recently announced their retirement. Their accolades, astounding.

The first time I ever heard Claude’s name was back in December of 1982, when my mom and dad and uncle took me to the Sugar Bowl, as top-ranked Georgia, three time reigning Southeastern Conference champion led by Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, took on Penn State for the national title. Claude and my parents grew up in Savannah and graduated from Savannah High School together in 1966.

At the Marriott team hotel, while I was staking out autographs, I remember getting to meet Georgia’s astounding young Sports Information Director. I wrote him a letter the next year, and he mailed me an autographed picture of Kevin Butler. The first time Supertoe ever spent the night at my home, Chateau JD/Emily, that signed photograph was on the pillow.

When I was 12-years-old, it was pretty clear I was not going to be the next Herschel Walker, Dominique Wilkins, Mikael Pernfors, Tom Watson or Reggie Jackson. But I loved sports and knew I wanted to work in sports.

Radio and sports information would be the path. Growing up in Statesboro, a lot of really nice people let me hang around the Georgia Southern SID Office and local radio stations, owned by the longtime Voice of the Eagles, Nate Hirsch, also a friend of Claude’s. They worked together when Claude was Georgia Southern’s SID in the 1970s. They both said that Dave Winfield’s home run in Minnesota’s College World Series win over Georgia Southern is the longest home run they’d ever seen.

Having been verbally committed to attend Georgia since the ‘78 Tech game, I knew I wanted to work for Claude. When I was a sophomore at Statesboro High, he said there would be a spot for me to be a student assistant in his office. Thank goodness, back then, getting accepted to Georgia wasn’t nearly as arduous as it is now.

I had an instant affection for him. Everything about Claude was and always has been good, right, sound and first class.

Always in demand, so many people needing something from him, he always delivered. Claude has defied father time. He’s barely aged, and was able to squeeze 26 hours into a day and eight days into a week.

Claude was the ultimate “man behind the scenes.” He was the genius who stealthy directed the spotlight to so many of Georgia’s most famous standout students, athletes and coaches.

I was astounded watching him work – the “little things” he did that few ever noticed had such a huge impact. While I, like many distinguished cohorts, was graduating “Summa Cum Claude,” from the Georgia Sports Info Office, the Dogs were going through some hard times. Claude was of course, at his best. Stories were shaped, fires were extinguished, and on “coin flip weekends, when TV networks had a hard choice deciding what game to broadcast, Georgia was several times chosen in large part due to Claude’s hospitality and the exceptional work from his incredible staff (many of my close friends).

He never wanted any recognition. When I called him the Michael Jordan of SIDs on the football postgame show, about a month later he received a letter in response to a story the Atlanta paper had done on some of the nuances of the Georgia-Florida game. The article said in one brief paragraph, “Florida’s SID staff, due to its proximity to Jacksonville, handles the press box set up and credential distribution.” This was in the 1990s. An angry fan wrote that “if you can’t handle all of that, you need to retire!” To which Claude, the next time I saw him said, “I really wish you’d stop mentioning my name on the radio.”

He was at about every baseball game at Foley Field, and would often laughingly tell my longtime broadcast partner David Johnston, “I would come in and see you guys, but Jeff would say I’m here.”

He wanted no limelight.

But when you are that good, when you are the best, when you are the gold standard at what you do, the accolades come.

A member of the College Sports Information Directors Hall of Fame, Claude received perhaps his greatest recognition in February of 2024, when he was inducted into the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

A protege to Coach Magill, working at the right hand of legendary football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, Claude flourished with the most famous of Bulldogs.

When it comes to those who didn’t play or coach football at Georgia, Claude is right there with the likes of Coach Magill, Larry Munson, Jack Davis and Sonny Seiler when it comes to great Bulldogs who made immeasurable contributions to the program.

He was a young SID during those glory days of the 1980s, and in the autumn of his career during the Kirby Smart dynasty, culminating with the back to back national championships in 2021 and 2022.

From Vince Dooley to our current nation’s best dynamic duo of Athletic Director/Football Coach Josh Brooks and Kirby Smart, through difficult to the grandest of times, Claude has been THE ROCK of the University of Georgia athletic association. Much like Coach Magill was, especially during the dark days of the 1950s.

In his book Bulldoggeral, Coach Magill wrote in Claude’s copy, “To The Greatest SID in the history of the SEC.”

Prior to Coach Dooley’s Celebration of Life in November of 2022, Georgia’s lettermen gathered at the Indoor Practice Facility. Coach and Barbara’s son Daniel gave a wonderful speech, and mentioned Claude’s importance to his dad.

This column doesn’t do him justice. A lengthy book and documentary would be far better. But he has been an incredible mentor, friend and second father. Many could say the same.

When Emily and I were married on Jekyll Island in July of 2018, the wedding was at 5:30 p.m. Claude and his wife Cathy drove the five hours from Athens. After the wedding, they drove back. The next morning at 4 a.m., he and Kirby were on a plane to Bristol, Connecticut to do a bunch of tv and radio shows on ESPN.

He’ll still be around, just not everyday. We all figured that at some point, he would eventually retire. When he did, it was the end of an era. His office was and is the best in the land, and is in great hands.

But things will never be the same. Just like with Coach Magill, no one person can do all of what Claude did. As great as Herschel and Brock Bowers were as players, Coach Dooley and Kirby as coaches, and the mighty Munson was announcing, Claude was every bit as remarkable as the incomparable, incredible, beloved Sports Information Director for his beloved alma mater.